9 years of stories, results, and commentary from a former online poker pro making the rounds at Northern California card rooms

Sunday, September 14, 2008

WCOOP So Far and What's Left

So far I've played 15 events in the 2008 WCOOP. With 3 cashes and 1 final table (as well as 4 second chance cashes!) I'd give myself somewhere between a B+ and an A-. At times I've played as good as I ever have in my career and at times I've made decisions that were nothing short of foolish. Counting all the satellites and second chance tournaments it's been well over 10,000 hands which means tens of thousands of decisions. Given that fact it's not surprising that I've made some mistakes.

I've been thinking about the late stage collapses that I had, first in the $215 limit and second in the $215 with rebuys and the more I think about it the fewer regrets I have. I'm not sure if he was the first one to say it, but I always think of a time I heard AmirVahedi (a player who made a lot of noise at the WSOP in 2003 and 2004) say "In order to live, you have to be willing to die!" Meaning you have to be willing to go for it! The worst thing you can do is play too carefully. It takes balls to be a successful poker player and the only way I was able to make it as far as I did was aggressive play.

When I first started playing poker and even at the early stages of my professional career I was too timid and afraid. I'd frequently come across situations where I'd think "If I was a better player I'd make a move here," but then I'd take the less risky avenue. I was still able to win with iron discipline and precise basic strategy, but I didn't have what it took to really dominate. Now I feel like people should be afraid to play against me in the last stages of a tournament! I'll put those suckers to the test and see if they have the stones to put it all on the line when they're not sure! Usually they back down and I take the pots down. It's this attitude that has lead to many of my greatest victories but it's what did me in in those two tournaments.

My starting bankroll of $10,000 currently stands at $20,415. What I have left might eat up almost all of those profits if I get totally blanked. Here's what I have remaining:

That's $5,490 in tournaments. But it's also going to cost (by my best guess since they haven't announced the buy ins yet) $2,600 to get into the six second chance tournaments that go along with these. And I'm going to take a few hundred bucks to try to win my way into the $1,050 pot limit Omaha, and maybe a thousand to try to win my way into the $10,300 HORSE event.

So if it all goes to shit we may be looking at $1,000 in profit instead of $10,000. With that in mind I'm going to give my backers a one time chance to do a bit of a hit and run and lock up part of all of their profits. If any of you would like to reduce your percentage for the rest of the WCOOP or say "Hey, I've just doubled my money and that's good enough for me" I won't blame you a bit. Just send me an e-mail and I'll mail you a check ASAP. It's only going to get riskier from here on out and you have until 11:30 PT on Tuesday morning to decide.